How many interviews to attend?

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LateBloomer88

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I do t have this "problem" but I am wondering what people think. If you applied to 10+ schools and start getting several interviews but you're on limited budget and/or time off from work or school do you stop at x number? If you schedule one but your dream school sends you an invite do you cancel one you've already scheduled? I know everyone needs their best shot so lots of interviews are good but some people may not be able to afford many.
Statistically most schools appear to offer at least 50% interviewed so it would appear "only" 3 interviews would be safe.

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I think it depends on your stats. If you're way above the average and don't just select highly competitive schools, 5-6 can be fine. If your stats are average I think 8-10 is a safe number. With below average stats applying more broadly is a good idea, 15+ schools. But these are just rough ballpark figures without knowing more details about the individual.
 
I think it depends on your stats. If you're way above the average and don't just select highly competitive schools, 5-6 can be fine. If your stats are average I think 8-10 is a safe number. With below average stats applying more broadly is a good idea, 15+ schools. But these are just rough ballpark figures without knowing more details about the individual.
Are those numbers the number of schools to apply to or to attend interviews for, assuming you get some?
 
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Are those numbers the number of schools to apply to or to attend interviews for, assuming you get some?

Apply to (misread the OP's post, sorry about that)! For interviews I don't think more than 5-6 are necessary if they're pre-December and you can interview well. I have heard of people interviewing at 5+ schools and not getting in to any but cases like that are rare and usually the result of interviewing poorly.
 
I would attend all interviews I get, unless I get acceptance at my school of choice, which is unlikely.
Your only acceptance might be the one you'll skip
 
Do schools consider yours stats again after the interview or they focus more on your interview performance ?
 
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Attend as many interviews as you feasibly can. The way I would go about eliminating schools to attend is if their COA is high relative to school prestige, e.g. eliminate USC, NYU, Touro if you're invited to UCLA, UCSF, Columbia, Harvard. However, if you get 5 schools or less, I would attend all of them. It's really based on your discretion.

Last cycle, I had 5 invites, but I only attended 4 (eliminated Touro) because I was confident that I would be accepted to at least 1 of the 4 schools I've interviewed (strong alumni connection with donation ;)).

Do schools consider yours stats again after the interview or they focus more on your interview performance ?
For schools like UNLV which only require a resume and fee (no essays!) they will look over your stats and interview performance equally. In fact, UNLV has a "formula" to calculate interview and acceptance chances. It's been posted multiple times on SDN.

At the current school that I'm attending (UMN), I bombed the interview so badly that they let me go early. However, I got accepted, so I'm assuming they looked at my DAT score and secondary essays. It's really different for each school, but they all look at your application holistically, but with different "weight" for each category (e.g. GPA, DAT, PS, secondary, EC's, shadowing, LOR's, interview performance etc.) Hope this makes sense.
 
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I'll chime in one more for the going to as many as possible.
I had 2 my first year with no acceptances and 3 my second, same result.
 
Go to all of them unless you regret applying to that school and really don't plan on going there. I had 6 interviews and felt good about them and chose not to go to 3 other ones. It's funny because I chose not to attend the other interviews because when I was getting interviewed at one of the schools the main interviewer told me I "wasn't being interviewed", but that I am "being recruited" since he wanted me to go to that school so bad. Funny enough I got waitlisted at that specific school. So you might feel so confident after 6 interviews, but you actually never know. The process is unpredictable. So don't screw yourself haha
 
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If possible considering flight and hotel/airbnb for each interview doesn't hurt the wallet too much, then I would go to all of them. I'm currently going to all of my interviews, flying to 3 and driving to 2 (<500 miles). If your stats are good and you fancy yourself a good interviewer, you could be a little more selective with your interviews but sometimes its good to just the averages! Best of luck with all of your interviews!
 
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